In 2014, she was a student in Mississippi where peers bullied her about her appearance. Then her life changed. Family tragedies left her and her siblings in the custody of their aunt and uncle in Louisiana. It was the middle of the school year. Culpepper was failing because of all the school she missed back in Mississippi.

That's when she turned to the Louisiana Virtual Charter Academy (LAVCA). The academy is a full-time, tuition-free, online public charter school. Students can enroll online or with the help of enrollment counselors over the phone. Enrollment numbers for the school are capped around 2,000.

Online charter schools and other sorts of virtual schools are being promoted by Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos as a solution to one-size-fits-all education. While studies (here, here and here) have called into question student outcomes and the quality of education at virtual schools, the option exists for students and parents looking to leave brick-and-mortar learning for a more flexible, personalized approach.

A normal school day for an online charter school student might look something like this. You wake up at 8 a.m. and eat breakfast — if you eat breakfast. Then you log on to your school account and go to your online classroom. It's sort of like an old online chat room.

There, the teacher can load PowerPoint presentations for all the students to see, and use a microphone to lecture to the students.

If you're in high school, you've got one set of classes on Monday and Wednesday and a different set on Tuesday and Thursday — one in the morning and one in the afternoon. One elective course is thrown in there somewhere. Classes are about an hour long.

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Jennifer started taking high school classes online when bulling started to take a toll at public school.
(Henrietta Wildsmith/The Times)

That became the new norm for Culpepper when she moved from Mississippi to Louisiana.

In July 2014, Culpepper's mother died in a car accident. She and her four younger siblings moved in with their grandmother. But her grandmother died on Halloween that same year. Soon, Culpepper and all of her siblings were placed under the care of Brandi and Kent Miller, their aunt and uncle.

"I didn't want to go to a school in the middle of the school year and be bullied even more for being the new kid and things like that," she said. "When I heard that (LAVCA) was a lot less confrontational ... I was like 'Yeah, I want to do this.'"

Culpepper, now 18 and graduated, was introduced to the online program by her cousin Jessie Cameron, with whom she now shared a home.

Cameron, 17, had been home-schooled from first to sixth grade. She enrolled in LAVCA in eight grade, seeking more educational structure, but a similar learning environment.

"I really hated that I didn't have teachers to explain anything to me. I was kind of on my own," Cameron said. "I really had to read my own material and gather what I could. As a third-grader, it was kind of difficult to know what I should have been paying attention to."

LAVCA offered Culpepper a chance to avoid bullying and get her grades back on track. Unlike in Mississippi, where people teased Culpepper about her weight.

"I've always been a big person my whole life," she said, "When I went to Mississippi, there were a lot of people who weren't big. Like they weren't my size. So I always had people who called me 'big head' or made fun of me because of my size. ... All the popular kids were super skinny."

A lot of people at LAVCA were supportive of Culpepper as she transitioned into the school — especially her teachers, she said. She had missed a lot of school and was behind in her classes.

"When I got to LAVCA, they were, like, 'Yeah, let's get these grades pulled up. Let's help you get to where you need to be,'" she said. "I finished that school year with A's and B's."

It wasn't all smooth. Culpepper said she had to get used to not seeing her friends face-to-face anymore.

"I love connecting with people on a personal level," she said.

But students aren't completely isolated. Between an in-person graduation ceremony, a prom and other sorts of monthly group outings with nearby students, there are opportunities to make friends, Cameron and Culpepper said.

The school offers face-to-face interaction with teachers through their blending learning program. Students go to locations in Houma, New Orleans, Baton Rouge, Northshore, Monroe, Shreveport, Alexandria, Lafayette and Lake Charles. There, the meet with a state-certified teacher for instruction and remediation if needed.

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Jennifer Culpepper was being bullied at school. She found a solution with online school. (Photo: Henriettta Wildsmith/The Times)

Critics of online charter schools question the treatment of teachers, the educational methods and the schools' effectiveness in academically preparing students.

In 2014, an Oregon educator whoworked for K12 Inc., the for-profit education company that runs LAVCA, claimed that teachers were underpaid, that students cycled in and out of courses and that management cared only about test scores and enrolling more students.

A 2015 study by the Center for Research on Education Outcomes at Stanford University stated that academic benefits at online charter schools were "the exception rather than the rule."

"There is evidence that some online charter schools have been able to produce consistent academic benefits for students," the study reads. "But most online charter schools have not."

LAVCA was rated a D-school by the Louisiana Education Department in its 2015-2016 school report card — the most recent.

Still, Cameron, Culpepper and their family say that online charter schools could work for anyone.

"I think (online charter schools) can be for everybody," Cameron said. "You would have to weigh the pros and cons out for each person. What means more to you? Would you rather be able to have a more flexible schedule ... or do you need someone to physically be there for you? Are you more comfortable going to school to learn? Is your learning style the way the teacher's teach?"

Culpepper graduated from LAVCA in May 2017. She's attending Southern University at Shreveport. She hopes to transfer to Louisiana Tech University to study computer science.

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